Katie Swan secured her place in the final of the Lexus Surbiton Trophy, but Katie Boulter’s hopes of an all-British showdown were ended by defeat to veteran Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.
For the first time in the tournament’s history, Great Britain had three women’s players through to the semi-finals.
Swan was in determined mood for Saturday’s opening match on Centre Court as she completed an impressive 6-1 6-0 victory over British number seven Lily Miyazaki in just over an hour.
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The 24-year-old, who had knocked out first seed Tatjana Maria in the last round, built on an early break to swiftly open up a 5-0 lead before closing out the opening set.
It remained one-way traffic in the second as Swan kept the pressure on Miyazaki’s serve with three straight breaks.
Miyazaki looked like she would break back in the sixth game, but Swan – who can secure the British number one spot by going on to win the title – twice recovered to level at deuce before clinching the match when a return went into the net.
“Today was probably one of the best matches I’ve played in my career – it was near perfect,” Swan said in her court-side interview broadcast by the LTA.
“I am really happy that I was able to produce that and I can’t wait to play in the final tomorrow.”
Boulter was in pole position to go on and cement her place as British number one, but Wickmayer proved too strong as the 33-year-old closed out a 6-3 6-2 win.
The opening set remained on serve with no break opportunities until the eighth game when Wickmayer capitalised on some wayward returns from Boulter to take a decisive lead and then close things out 6-3.
Boulter made an important hold in the first game of the second set, but the Belgian kept the pressure on to break in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead as another return from the Briton flew wide.
Wickmayer – who won the doubles title with Sophie Chang on Friday – held and then battled back from 15-40 down to break Boulter again in the seventh game.
Although Boulter saved one match point, it was only delaying the inevitable as a return into the net saw Wickmayer progress to Sunday’s final against Swan.
“I am really enjoying my time on the grass, so am really happy to have gotten a lot of matches this week,” Wickmayer said following her win.
“I am really happy to be in another final here and just going to enjoy one more.”
Sabalenka defeats Collins to set up Swiatek rematch
Aryna Sabalenka defeated Danielle Collins 7-5 6-2 to set up yet another meeting with Iga Swiatek at the Italian Open.
Having defeated Collins en route to the final of the Madrid Open, which she lost to Swiatek, Sabalenka repeated the trick with a straight sets win over the American in Thursday's semi-final.
And the Belarusian's reward will be an immediate rematch with Swiatek.
The duo have met 10 times, including in Madrid earlier this month, with Swiatek winning seven times and Sabalenka claiming three victories.
This will be Sabalenka's first appearance in the Italian Open final.
She is the sixth player, along with Simona Halep (2017), Dinara Safina (2009), Serena Williams (2013), Ons Jabeur (2022), and Swiatek (2024) to have reached the final of both Madrid and Rome in the same season.
Data Debrief: Perfect record
Collins is the only player against whom Sabalenka has registered six wins without a loss in WTA events, while only against Maria Sakkari and Elise Mertens does she have more wins in her career in such events (seven each).
The final will mark the fourth meeting on clay between Swiatek and Sabalenka as world number one and two, equalling Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for the most meetings on the surface as the WTA's top-two ranked players.
Swiatek makes it back-to-back finals with Gauff win
Iga Swiatek is through to the Italian Open final for the third time after seeing off Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday.
There was little to separate the two in the opening 50 minutes as they played to 4-4 before Gauff left an opening with back-to-back double faults, and Swiatek took full advantage.
The world number one broke Gauff’s serve four times, including in the fifth game of the second set to swing the momentum firmly in her favour after one hour 48 minutes on the court.
Swiatek has now reached back-to-back WTA 1000 finals after winning the Madrid Open earlier this month and could face Aryna Sabalenka for the title once more if the Belarusian gets past Danielle Collins in the other semi-final.
Data Debrief: Unstoppable on clay
Swiatek has now won 11 consecutive matches, and registered her 10th victory over Gauff in 11 meetings between the two - she has won all four matches against the American on clay.
Since the format’s introduction in 2009, Swiatek (40 per cent, 12/30) holds the highest percentage of finals reached from WTA-1000 main draws entered. Serena Williams (36.7 per cent, 18/49) is the next best in the format's history.
Since the WTA rankings were first published in 1975, Swiatek has become only the third player to reach multiple Italian Open finals as the WTA's number one, along with Serena Williams (three) and Monica Seles (two). She will be looking for her third Italian Open title on Saturday.
Paul sees off Hurkacz in seesaw quarter-final
Tommy Paul reached the semi-final of the Italian Open after pulling through a rollercoaster clash with Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday.
The number 14 seed downed Hurkacz 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarter-final, keeping his composure during his two hours and 43 minutes on the court.
After winning the first set, Hurkacz fought back to win the second, but the American was not out of the contest yet as he clawed back from 0-2 down early in the third.
He closed out the win in a dramatic fashion, fending off six break points while letting three of his own slip, to eventually set up a semi-final against Stefanos Tsitsipas or Nicolas Jerry on Friday.
Data Debrief: Into the final four
After beating Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, Paul has now won back-to-back matches against top-10 opponents for the first time in his professional career with his victory over Hurkacz.
Paul earned his 150th tour-level win to take him through to his third Masters 1000 semi-final, as he aims to become the first American finalist in Rome since Andre Agassi in 2002.
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